Sakdalista

The Philippine Sakdalista movement was founded by the writer Benigno Ramos in 1930. The name of the movement is derived from the Tagalog word "Sakdal", which means, "to accuse". The movement’s platform was centered upon immediate independence, estate redistribution, taxation reductions, and greater governmental transparency. The movement lasted until 1935, when the Sakdalista leaders organized an active uprising that quickly failed, causing the party to dissolve. The movement is estimated to have had 20,000 formal members that influenced hundreds of thousands of Filipinos in the early 1930s.

The central goal of the Sakdalistas was simple: they wanted complete and immediate independence from the United States of America, which they believed would be the most effective means towards the alleviation of crippling taxation. The movement was born out of frustrations with corruption and inequality. Benigno Ramos described these sentiments in a December 1930 editorial: "In Manila we see our so-called leaders growing fat and rich on money amassed from taxing the poor. They have fine automobiles and fine homes for themselves, but for us they have only fine and empty words. They have learned to promise as much as the Americans and to deliver as little."

People joined the Sakdalista movement for a variety of reasons. The party fearlessly exposed the wrongdoings of politicians, was truly compassionate about the poor and oppressed, was uncompromising in its stand on independence, and possessed integrity in terms of living up to its record of not being after the people’s money. Its members perceived the movement as being very honest, as it was founded by a small group of modest middle-class citizens.

The party had a truly hopeful vision of the future. The Sakdalistas believed that, if independence were gained, the government would be able to right all of its past wrongs by giving land back to the landless, looking after the workers' welfare, nationalizing industries, providing youths with truly Filipino educations, setting up a pro-people judiciary, and keeping a close watch on the performance of politicians. The consensus was that this would all result in citizens not committing crimes because of a new independent standard of life where everybody would be rich, happy, and comfortable.

Benigno Ramos (1893–1946) spent his youth and formative years working as a poet, schoolmaster, government clerk, and newspaper editor before he was hired by Manuel Quezon to become a full-time translator for the Senate in 1917. He spent thirteen years as an influential speechwriter and orator, and in the process he amassed a small but solid following of political admirers by speaking for Quezon at party functions in Manila and Bulacan.

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